Chapter 9

Brooklyn

Dean and I made our way into the library, smiling and hand in hand. Sam was sitting at the table on his laptop, looking up when he noticed us. He noticed our smiles and leaned back, "You two had a good night."

"As a matter of fact, Sammy, we did."

I held up my hand, revealing the engagement ring on my left hand. Sam's eyes went wide and a huge smile crossed his face as he stood, "Really! Congrates, you guys."

Sam hugged his brother, "I'm happy for you man."

"Thanks, man."

Moving to me, Sam wrapped his arms around me in a hug, "Welcome to the family."

I chuckled, "Thanks Sam. It's about time something good happens around here."

Pulling away, Sam rubbed the back of his neck, "Sadly, I don't have much good news." He glanced at his laptop before looking at us in a pause. Dean and I gestured for him to continue, making him sit down. "I've been checking through everything again, double-checking and triple-checking, and..."

"The Mark is a curse," Dean said.

Scuffing, I agreed, "Yeah, tell me about it."

"No, I mean an actual curse."

Sam looked confused, "What are you talking about?"

"Crowley told me. Or rather, Rowena told him after she tried and failed to kill me."

"What the hell happened?"

I looked at Dean confused, "Why didn't you say anything? And who's Rowena?"

Sam answered the last question, "A powerful witch we came across awhile back."

Dean looked at me, smirking slightly, "And I had a few other things on my mind last night." I couldn't help but blush at his comment before returning to the conversation. "The Mark protected me. Rowena doesn't really have a beef with me. She was pissed at Crowley because she thinks he's going soft."

"She's not wrong," Sam shrugged.

Usually I would beg to differ, but I haven't been dragged to Hell so he must be doing something good.

Dean nodded, "Yeah, well listen to this. Rowena is Crowley's mother. Crowley came and told me what she had said. The Mark is an actual curse. So, anyway, I'm sorry. I probably should've told you guys that."

"Yeah," Sam nodded.

"Yeah," Dean repeated, rubbing the back of his neck before Sam's phone rang. Before Sam could pick it up, Dean answered it and put it on speaker, "Winchester Accounting. How may I help you?"

A weak woman's voice came through, "Dean?"

Dean's eyes pulled together in confusion, "Charlie? What's going on? Where are you?"

"Uh, uh, I'm exhausted and.... and I'm bleeding. And I'm in a phone booth. A phone booth. I didn't know these things existed outside of Bill and Ted's..."

Dean and Sam looked at each other worried before Dean spoke again, "Okay. Hey, hey. Take a deep breath, kiddo. Uh, we're both sitting here. Tell me what happened. Why are you bleeding?"

"I, uh, I got shot. Did you know dental floss works great on stitches? I only passed out twice, and I'm pretty sure my wound is now minty fresh."

Well, that's good to know.

I spoke up, worried for this strange woman, "You probably need to go to a hospital."

Charlie's voice seemed to lighten up a bit, "Who's that? Is that Brooke? Hi Brooke!"

My eyes looked at Dean who made a face, seeming to read my thoughts and answer my question. "Hunter, old friend of ours." I nodded in respond.

Charlie spoke up, "Yeah, just friends. Nothing ever happened between any of us. I'm more like a little sister than anything else."

Well, that's a bit reassuring.

"Listen, these guys are still after me."

Sam spoke up, "What guys? Who?"

"Some southern fried d-bags. They've been after me since I dug up "The Book of the Damned.""

My eyes went wide as the three of us looked at each other. Sam spoke up again, surprised, "You found it? Where?"

"After some near misses and some broken into museums, I found historical documents that led to a monastery in Spain. It burned down years ago, left for dead, but, uh, I had this hunch about it. Turned out I was right."

Dean nodded, getting a bit excited, "Okay, Charlie, what does it say about the Mark?"

"I have no fracking idea. The language it's written in, I've never seen anything like it. I, uh, I found some research notes in the monastery crypt, though, by the Friar that buried it. "The Book of the Damned" is a spell book for creating or undoing any kind of damnation there is. We translate this thing, I think we can get the Mark of Cain off you, Dean."

A large smile crossed my face as I looked at Dean, both of us getting excited. I couldn't help the excitement in my voice as I said, "Charlie, you're a genius."

"A genius fugitive. I... these dudes following me, they are well trained. One of them keeps talking about his family."

"Family? Did you get a name?" Sam asked?

"No clue. I spotted a tattoo on one of them. Might be a family crest. It seemed occultly. Soon as the book was out of the ground, they were all over me. I, uh....I don't know how much more running I got left in me. They're tracking the book somehow."

Sam nodded, "Alright, then we need to get you off the grid, Charlie. Where are you right now?"

"Uh, just south of Des Moines."

Dean stood up, bringing the phone with him and causing us to rise as well. "Uh, okay, you know what? Our friend, Bobby, has a whole bunch of cabins scattered all around, places for hunters to crash. You know, it's not much, but there's some gear and lore books, stuff to keep you busy till we get there."

"Okay, bring snacks. And every Men of Letters decoder ring there is. This book is old and scary, and I've never seen anything like it."

With that, the phone was hung up and we all took a breath before heading to our rooms to pack.

I was packing my bag when Dean walked in, carrying a box with a whole bunch of markings on it. "Hey, check it out. I found this in the storage room. It's lead-lined and warded. If those guys are tracking this book, pretty sure this bad boy will take it off the radar."

"Perfect," I said, zipping up my bag. "Hey, why didn't you ever mention Charlie?"

Dean shrugged, "Just, never came up."

"Well, clearly she knew me."

Smirking, Dean said, "Yeah, I tend to talk about you a lot." I blushed, looking at the ground. "I'm sorry our engaged honeymoon couldn't have gone longer," He said, taking my hand.

I wrap my arms around his neck, "Hey, we're Hunters, and when someone needs us, we're there. And it sounds like Charlie needs us, so pack up Winchester," I said, hitting his chest before taking a step back. Dean smirked before turning and walking away.

We climbed into the car and started our drive. It was already getting dark out, meaning by the time we get there it may be already morning.

No matter what time it was, Dean had the radio cranked up, playing "The Boys are Back in Town" and dancing in the driver seat. It was nice to see the large smile on his face as he rocked out to his music.

Sam turns the radio down though, grabbing Dean's attention. "What?"

"Nothing, I just haven't seen you like this in a while, that's all."

"It's a good song, man. Shut up." Sam nods slightly before Dean continues, smiling. "Look, man, it has been one crap sandwich after another for the past few weeks, okay? You heard Charlie. We got a shot at fixing this thing. And I'm engaged to the most beautiful girl in the world."

I playfully hit him from the back, "Oh, whatever Winchester." He smirks as he looks through the review mirror back at me before looking back towards the road.

Sam nodded in agreement, "Yeah, it's a lot to be happy about."

"We're due for a win, okay? Overdue. I'll tell you another thing, if this actually does work, we're gonna take some time off."

Looking at Dean with a raised eyebrow, Sam asked, "What, like a vacation?"

"Mm-hmm. And I'm not talking just like a weekend in Vegas or sitting in some crap motel eating take out every night. No, I'm talking about a beach, drinking, getting married, the whole thing."

I smiled at Dean's words, actually hoping that it does turn out that way.

We drove the rest of the way with the radio cranked back up, until we pulled up to the cabin. We grabbed a couple of boxes that we brought with us, as ordered, before heading inside.

"Charlie?" Dean asked as we entered.

A sleeping Charlie quickly rose her head, a post-it note on her face as she said, "Merry Christmas!" She looked around before fully waking up. "Hey, were you followed?"

"No, no," Dean said, shaking his head before he hugged her. Sam hugged her next, asking, "How are you feeling?"

"Um.... I may have just passed out, but better," She said, watching us lay down the boxes.

As I sat a box down, I looked at Charlie with a smile, "Hi, I'm-"

"Brooke!" She said happily. Instantly, she gave me a hug, surprising me a bit before I hugged her back. As she pulled away, she looked at Dean, "She's even prettier then you said."

I lightly glanced at Dean who shrugged. Shaking my head and setting a hand on Charlie's shoulder, I led her to the couch. "Okay, let's take a look at your wound." As I checked out her wound, Dean started to ask where the book was.

"Okay, here's what I've learned so far. About 700 years ago, a nun locked herself away after having visions of darkness. After a few decades squirrelled away by herself, she emerged with this." Charlie reached over, pulling out the freaky book. "Each page is made out of slices of her own skin written in her blood. I told you, it's eekish."

I made a face as Charlie handed Sam the book, flipping through it.

"According to the notes I found, it's been owned and used by cults, covens, and the Vatican had it for a while. There's a spell inside that thing for everything. Talking some black mass, dark magic, end-of-times nastiness."

Dean, almost in a daze, took the book from Sam, looking down at it as he wandered into the kitchen. He stopped, starring down at it for a moment.

We all watched him confused. It wasn't until I stood up and approached Dean did I finally speak. "Dean? Dean!"

Blinking a few times and raising his head, Dean looked around. "What?" he asked, confused, looking down at the book. He closed it before handing it over to me, "I don't think it's a good idea that I touch this." I took the book, handing it off to Charlie who watched Dean with concern. "I'll go get the rest of our crap," he said, walking past me and out the door.

I looked at Sam and Charlie, worried before going after Dean outside.

"Hey, are you okay?" I asked, closing the door behind me before walking up to the Impala.

"Yeah, I'm..." Dean starts but stops when he turns and looks at me. He must have seen something on my face, causing him to sigh and look at the ground. "I don't know. That book, it was like calling to me or something. All I know is that I need to stay away from that book."

I nod, making my way up to him, "Okay." Dean turns to grab a bag when my hand reaches up and stops him, "Hey. I love you."

"I love you too," Dean said, giving me a kiss.

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